Eiichiro Oda Isn’t Having It: One Piece Creator Defends Luffy’s Goofy Gear 5

If you think Luffy turning into a rubber-hose cartoon during the Kaido fight was a bridge too far, Eiichiro Oda hears you. He just does not care. And, honestly, that is kind of the point.

The Gear 5 freakout, explained

Ever since Kaido went down and Gear 5 took over the screen, some fans have called it too silly for One Piece. The look is wild, the physics get tossed out the window, and Luffy pretty much bends the world like it is Play-Doh. But Oda says that vibe is intentional. One Piece has always balanced pitch-black themes — slavery, genocide, the whole ugly pile — with dumb, joyful nonsense. He never wanted to lose that.

Oda’s goal: keep One Piece fun

In a talk called Over 100 Miracle Talk with Gosho Aoyama (the Detective Conan creator) — shared via @WSJ_manga’s transcript on X — Oda laid out why he made Gear 5 the way he did. He feels battle manga keep hard-pivoting into grim seriousness to satisfy expectations, and the goofy visual language that defined classic manga keeps getting erased. You know, the light bulb over a character’s head, the legs spinning like circles when they run — that stuff. He loves those symbolic gags and does not want to ditch them just because the genre got dour.

"I drew this because I really want to have fun, and I think that it is okay if people do not like it. I just want to play around with my battles... Battle manga has to keep getting more and more serious to keep up with readers’ expectations and I honestly hate that. I definitely do not want my work to become a serious manga like that... When I was drawing this, I actually had fun."

• Oda thinks modern battle manga lean too serious and lose the playful visual tricks he grew up on.
• He designed Gear 5 to bring that energy back, even if some fans bounce off it.
• He would rather fit the tone of One Piece than chase what the market thinks a fight should look like.

One Piece has always been ridiculous (by design)

From day one it has been chaos: Luffy stuck in a barrel, Luffy accidentally insulting Koby while being blunt, the crew constantly doing dumb bits. Sure, the humor cooled down after the two-year timeskip, but the DNA never left. This is the series where Zoro once swung Usopp like a sword and Franky starts dancing for no reason. Silly is not new here.

Why Gear 5 fits Luffy like a glove

Luffy’s whole deal is freedom. Sail where you want, party whenever, liberate whoever needs it. Gear 5 literally turns that philosophy into power. It is his Devil Fruit awakening that lets him reshape his body and the world around him however he wants — and have fun doing it.

Chapter 1044 lays out the lore twist: Luffy’s fruit is not what we thought. It is the Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Nika — tied to the Sun God Nika, a so-called warrior of liberation. Joy Boy was the previous user. The name Joy Boy likely nods to a smiling figure in Caribbean folklore whose music makes people dance. Whether you buy that inspiration or not, the intent is clear: this power is liberation with a grin.

So no, Gear 5 is not just another shonen power-up with extra flames and shouting. It is the most Luffy upgrade imaginable. If freedom is the point, what good is it without joy?

The bottom line

Oda built Gear 5 to be playful, elastic, and yes, downright cartoonish, on purpose — as a tribute to the classic manga language he loves and as a statement about what One Piece is at its core. Dark world, joyful hero. Both can coexist. He is just not interested in turning this into a humorless brawl-fest.

Is Gear 5 too goofy for you, or exactly right for Luffy? I am genuinely curious where you land.

One Piece is streaming on Crunchyroll.